Monday, March 19, 2012

Here is my attempt to simplify some of the more confusing aspects of the game play...* Takes a deep breath…

Guns, Optimal Range & Fall Off

This part is pretty simple I think… INSIDE of your gun’s optimal range you do near to full DPS. Beyond your optimal and inside of your gun's fall off, you do about 1/2 of your normal DPS

So if you're sitting there looking at how awesome your ship is in EFT, dealing 700 DPS inside of your optimal of only 2,500 meters, look at your fall off and cut that number in half to about 350 DPS, because that is what you will be dealing most of the time.

Missiles, Velocity & Signature Radius

Missiles factor in damage a bit differently then guns do… Speed x Velocity = your missiles range, but when they hit their target your missiles will land for less damage if said target is small and fast.

The smaller the target is…And the Faster the target is going…The less Damage your missiles will do. Mkay?

Guns Vs Tracking

Without Tracking EVE would kind of suck… Tracking adds an added dimension to the game because it gives us the option to literally “fly” our ships in space while we are fighting. There is a hell of allot of math that goes into this, but lets just skip all that shall we so we? Let us instead try and understand this like a real living human beings.

Imagine a race car driving around a perfectly circular racetrack…

Now imagine that you’re standing in the middle that circular track…

You watch as the race car slowly spins around you. The bigger the track the slower the race car will “appear” to be spinning around you, right? Like wise, if the tack is smaller that same race car would look like it was zipping past your head at a much faster rate of speed.

So big track… car looks like its spinning slowSmall track… that same car looks like its spinning faster? Right?

Your guns do this and call it “tracking” so if the racetrack becomes a ship's orbit and the race car becomes ship, you can begin to visualize what is going on. If your ship is orbiting farther away it "appears to be moving slower” just like the race car on a big track, and it is thus EASIER TO HIT. If however that same ship is orbiting closer at the exact same speed “it appears to be moving faster” and is thus harder to hit. The speed does not change, only the distance does, and in doing so it's relative velocity vs the observer.

If your in a small ship (like a frigate or an interceptor) and your going REALLY fast, you can zip around with enough speed so large guns can't hit you no matter what your distance is. Obviously being really tiny and really fast is key here...

Now Some Fun Facts About Tracking!

1. If it’s really far away then it’s also really easy to hit (assuming that your guns can shoot out that far)

2. If it is really close to you it’s also really hard to hit, especially if your in a big ship and the other guy is in a small one.

3. The smaller the ship that you're flying is, and the faster that it is, the better that it will “Sig Tank” damage (especially from larger ships)

4. FLYING STRAIT TOWARDS OR AWAY FROM A SHIP IS NOT SIG TANKING!!!... you may very well get one volleyed and killed before you can say WTF

Always remember the race track...

If the car is coming directly towards you, or moving directly away from you, it would not appear to "move around you" in a circle right? It would only appear to get bigger or smaller as it approached or drove farther away, thus it has no transversal and it might as well be standing still.

The Stupid Guns Vs Missiles Discussion

They have told you that “missiles don’t do instantaneous DPS” and thus “guns are better in PVP” well consider the following…

Unless your flying Amarr ships that get ridiculously awesome optimal gun range, your guns have a much larger falloff then they do optimal. So unless you're getting up close and personal with them (in the first few seconds of the fight) you are hitting them inside of your falloff, doing about 1 / 2 of your normal damage. We then also have to account for the travel time of your drones, which also do not do instantaneous damage.

They also fly to the target much faster then your ship can fly there, and when they hit they have no “fall off” range where their DPS drops to 1/2. So yes, your DPS may be delayed, but by the same token your landing your missiles faster then the gun ships can burn to their optimal range & land their full DPS.

See?

So I shall leave you with this little bit of EVE wisdom…everything tends to balance out in the end. Missile launching Drakes and torpedo launching Typhoons can stand toe to toe with the best of them. They bang out similar DPS to their gun ship counterparts and they have exceptional weapons range. The typhoon can deal all damage types as well which is another strong plus in it’s favor.

Just food for thought the next time that someone tells you that guns are better then missiles and that’s all there is to it...

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Although there seems to be an endless array of modules available to you on the market, in truth you will only need a few of them to fit your ship. For the most part everything else is nothing more then clutter. Just try and think of it as white noise that's only purpose is to confuse you and make EVE look far more complicated then it really is. Eve, in actuality, is not very complex once you understand what is really happening. It does not matter what ship you fly, whether it is a Supercarrier Nyx or just a tiny little Frigate, you will always see the same UNIVERSAL low slots and mid slots.

This section of the blog is not simply a ship fitting library...It is a true overview of how ALL ships in EVE are universally fitted.

Now, to give you a clear example of what I am talking about I will post a few random builds. These fits are very common PVP fits... they will be selected at random and they will belong to different races and different ship classes. You will note however that the modules used are exactly the same throughout, and the only thing that I am changing are the racial specific modules.

There is truly no mystery here... all of the lowslots and midslots are the same. The illusion of complexity only comes from modules of different sizes combined with race specific weapons. Plug these builds into EFT however, and you will find that they all have very similar Tank, Resists and DPS. So much so that you might as well be fitting the same ship.

Your goal is to try an balance as much Tank, Resists and DPS as you can get into whatever ship that you are flying. If you add to much tank, then you start to lack DPS and that means that you will kill too slowly, where as if you add to much DPS you will lose to much tank and then you will die too quickly. See how that works? Ultimately a balanced fit always looks the same, no matter what you're flying.

When you cut out all of the white noise...It Really Is Just That Simple

Ok, so you want to fly a fleet interceptor in the role of a tackler, scout, or secondary / tertiary tackler. First things first, refer to the fitting forum and pick one of the fleet interceptor fits (Ares, Stiletto, Raptor, Malediction). The reason i pick these ships is very simple, the bonuses for these four ships is perfectly suited for the above roles. Each of those ships gets a bonus to disruptor range (up to 30km with ceptor V) and a bonus to MWD sig radius. Both of these bonuses combine give you the ability to survive while holding a point against just about any ship in the game.

Tackling / Fleet Interceptor 101First and foremost, your job is to survive. Now, there is a time and a place for holding a point until you explode...but in most cases you are way more beneficial to your fleet if you dont die. So when in doubt, drop your point and get out alive.With the above being said, your flying your shiny interceptor with its long point. There are a number of situations where you will be asked to get and hold a point on a target. I'll go through each of these.

Target is X distance from the gate

So you just jumped through a gate and you see a target sitting 50km off of the gate. Your FC tells you to call point. Your first instinct is going to be to press the "Approach" button and then press the "orbit" button once in range. This will work in some cases, however against a smart pilot, there is a good chance your going to wind up in a pod before your fleet even has a chance to do anything. Instead, what you want to do, is click in space a few inches (or centimeters) to the side of your target (as you get better, you can judge where to click to wind up passing just inside your point range) and burn towards that spot. The idea being your not burning directly at him, and thus your transversal will allow you to not take much damage on the way in.So you've clicked to the side of your target and burned towards him, now, right before your going to pass him...THIS is when you click your orbit button and apply your disruptor to the target (i'll talk about what distance to orbit in a moment). What this does is make your ship spiral into an orbit onto the target, and keeps you from ever burning directly at him. (refer to diagram if your confused)

You follow a target through a gate So you just landed on a gate with a target and it jumped through the gate. You follow it through, and your FC instructs you to get point. Based on the targets ship, i would advise you to again burn to the side either away or towards the target and again click your orbit button when you are about to pass the target.Setting OrbitSetting your default orbit is something that is going to change based on the ship that your tackling. Though in most cases, if your not tackling a frigate you can set your default orbit to 22km-23km (which with your MWD active will swing your orbit just outside 25km which is heavy neut range...but inside your 28.8KM point range. If you ARE tackling a frigate then i'd go with a 500 orbit. The reasoning behind these distances is that having your orbit set outside of 25KM keeps you outside of neut range (of most neuts) and also gives you the best oppurtunity to avoid damage, or escape if you need to). Against a frigate, your not all that likely to have the chance to both hold point AND escape...500 lets you hold point. You'll have to rely on your fleet to kill it before it kills you.

Secondary / Tertiary tackler

You have one of the most laid back, yet important jobs in the fleet. You and the other tacklers in the fleet have to learn to listen to the "POINT" calls that are coming from the other tacklers. So once one target has been pointed by 1 or 2 people, you need to be picking a NEW target and calling point on IT(preferably whatever the FC calls as secondary, or tertiary). If the FC says "spread points" then you need to make a determination and figure out what you can get a point on quickly...adjust your orbit to that ship and call point as soon as possible. If someone else calls point on that ship, then you need to go to your next closest target, and so on. You need to be flexible here. Having 2 interceptors tackling the same ship and not tackling another ship doesnt make much sense. When you DO get point on a ship, your reporting statement should be "name > point > target name". If you happen to die, you need to type in chat "dead, no point on > targets name" or something similiar.ScoutingScouting is the 2nd most critical job in the fleet after the FC (maybe even more important). So you need to make sure the information your giving is short, sweet, and ACCURATE. When you jump through a gate, the BASE amount of information you MUST give you FC is: Number in local, What is on the gate with you, what is on DSCAN. If there are ships on the gate with you, you need to relay WHAT KINDS OF SHIPS, numbers, and whether or not they are at ZERO on the gate, or if they are at range. REMEMBER, when you jump through a gate you are 12-13KM from the gate, so take that into account when you report your findings the FC. If a system has drag / screen bubbles in it, you need to advise the FC, and if needed provide the fleet a warp in.

Additionally, ANY TIME YOU TALK you need to PREFACE what your saying with: who you are, where you are, and what you want to say". For example, "Babylelin in OTK has 3 drakes at zero on the 3-f gate" This tells the FC exactly what they need to know, and who to give instructions to in order to get further intel.

This is by no means a comprehensive guide, and perhaps i will write a 201 version of this guide. This should get people started on the right path though. If you have any questions you can ask them here, or convo me in game.

Hard Targets:There is something to be said about specific ships which will give fleet interceptors a hard time. The obvious ones are ECM ships (falcon, blackbird, scorpion, kitsune). These ships are really not able to be held in place with a single tackler...unless they are either very new, or very bad. THough they areant particularly dangerous to you either.

Curse: This ship will give you absolute FITS, it gets a bonus to both neut range and drain amount, and has very high drone damage. This is a ship that absolutely REQUIRES more then one tackler. Going for a solo tackle on this ship is not something i'd advise unless you know your fleet is going to be with you very soon. The curse will neut your cap try in one cycle then either warp off...or kill you with its drones while your dead in the water.

Vagabond / Cynabal / Hurricane: These ships are tough because they are fast, and carry neuts. The vagabond / cynabal you will be able to stay outside their neuts for the most part, but holding them close enough to your gang will be a problem with just a disruptor. I'd recommond holding a disruptor on them till they are getting low shields...then moving in for the scram. You only have to hold the scram long enough to keep them from overheating MWD and leaving the field. I wouldnt recommend burning out to these ships though..chasing them is what they want.I listed the hurricane here because it is another ship that if flown intelligently will cut through tacklers very quickly. This is a ship to be very careful about staying out of its neuts!Heavy Neut Battleships: (Tempest, Megathron, Armageddon to name a few) These are the kinds of ships you need to make sure you are staying outside of 25KM. One cycle from their heavy neut will leave you completely without cap, and thus VERY vulnerable to being killed. If you are successful at staying outside of their neuts, you shouldnt have any trouble with their guns DPS...the only thing to look out for beyond neuts are drones...so pay attention to your HP.

Faction Battleships: The main Faction BS that you will encounter that will give you lots of trouble is the Machariel. It is very fast(for a bs), has extremely high DPS(it can hit out to 70km with autocannons FFS), a fantastic tank, and carries a heavy neut. This is another ship that i would NOT recommend trying to tackle solo. Holding point outside of 25km from this ship is VERY hard...with its high speed it is very difficult to not slingshot into neut range...on top of the fact that this ship is likely to burn away from your fleet if you dont put a scrambler on it. I certainly dont have all the answers to holding a mach on the field...but recon ships are better suited for the job IMO....a fleet interceptor is going to get worked pretty hard

More often then not I hear people saying how terrible they are at scanning, or how long it takes them to narrow down a signature, so in this guide I will be covering techniques to increase scanning speed, and efficiency.

Disclaimer:These are just the techniques I use and are by no means the end-all be all way to probe, it's just what works for me.

1)Probe formation: 6-7 probes

If you are serious about probing 7 probes is well worth the investment, it will almost double your speed from 6 probes. To start the formation launcher all 7 probes, then drag one probe at a time, so the tips of the arrows are just barley touching each other (one on each arrow from the center probe)Example of a partially done formation:

Fully done formation:

The 6 probe formation is the same as above but you will not have the center probe.It is VERY IMPORTANT that you do not zoom in or out while getting these probes into position or you will mess up the proportions on the formation and it will cause you a ton of grief later on.

2)Probe formations: 8 probesComing soon™

3) Probe ManipulationThere are two ways to re-size probes, either hold in shift and click and drag the edge of one of your probes scan radius, or select all probes in your 'scanner' window and right click, and change the size that way. I prefer the latter.The next step is to re size your probes to the max range (32 for core, 64 for combat), and move them to cover the system you are in. Hold shift when you drag your probes, and it will move them all at once without messing up the formation.To move all probes around the center point of your formation hold in alt then drag one arrow on an outer probe, it will change the spacing of the entire formation at the same time. This one thing will save you minutes off of the time it takes you to narrow down each signature.Now, do a scan, and see if there are any signatures that need to be scanned.Example:

4) TechniquesIn my case I'm in a wormhole and there are an almost overwhelming amount of signatures to sort through. So, where do I start?Simple, choose the inner or outermost planet, center your probes on them, set the range to 4 AU (signatures will not spawn more then 4 AU from a planet) and then position the probes so you have about 20-30% of the scan area overlapping in the center, as shown in the full-system scan.Example:

Much better right? Instead of a huge list I'm left with just 5 signatures. Plus this method already produced a pretty good signal strength on a couple of them!

To narrow down signatures further continue shift clicking to center the probes on where the signature shows on your system screen, then alt-dragging them closer, closing the range a little, etc, etc until you have it to a nice pretty, green 100% signal strength.

5)Thoughts, reflections and miscellaneous tipsIn time you will be able to look at a split signature (One that gives you two equal strength location for the same ID) and tell which is the real one. As you get a feel for what part of your probing formation gives you what kind of signal strength, and act accordingly. With everything in eve, and really life, the more you do it the more like second nature it will become.

It's Pretty Simple Really: Kill the ships with the Most DPS FIRST, and kill the ships with the Biggest Tank and Least Amount of DPS LAST.

Here Is A List For Simple Frame of Reference:

Order Of Primary: Battlecruiser Class Ships

Basically: Hurricanes First and Drakes Last.

Order Of Primary: Battleship Class Ships

Basically: Death to the Ravens, and then get the Blaster boats off the field ASAP. Once that is done, the most dangerous ship on the field is the Explosive dealing Typhoon. Variations do apply here, and it will depend greatly on the compositions of the enemy fleet. But for simplicities sake and training purposes we will call this our basic standard for calling Primaries.RANGE IS A BIG FACTOR

Say that you have a Harbinger at 5KM and a Hurricane at 15 KM, you want to go for the Harbinger first because he is closer, and as a result, he is inside of your Fleet's Optimal Range. You will melt him very quickly. By the time the Hurricane burns closer to your fleet, the Harbinger will be dead, after which, you can primary the Hurricane.

Also...

Say that you have a Typhoon at 10KM and a Megathron at 20KM... you guessed it, you nail the Typhoon first and then go for the Megathron.

RANGE GIVES PRIORITY TO YOUR TARGETS!! The closer it is, the faster it needs to die.

Being an FC is not as hard as people think, but it does require a certain sense of FOCUS from the Fleet Commander.

Don't let yourself get distracted. Distraction is the bane of Fleet Commanders, and yes, the very first time that you see an overview filled with flashy reds you WILL get distracted. But try to focus on the following;

1.) First Ask Yourself "What Ship Class Are We Fighting?"2.) Second, Work Your Way Through The List That I Provided In FC target calling 1013.) If It's Closer Kill It First, Because Range Gives Priority To Your Targets

Some Bulletins!

I. Two Guardians Suddenly Warped In And Your Gang Has None. The Primary is not Dieing...

Your Toast, give the De-Aggress command ASAP!! If you save most of your fleet then you have not lost the battle. Everyone needs to warp away, stop shooting, recall drones and GTF out! If you are pointed, do your best to tank until your aggression wears off so you can dock or cross a Stargate and make your escape.

II. Your Fighting Equal Numbers But They Have 1 ECM Pilot For Every 5 Of Your Guys

Since ECM is a force Multiplier, assume that the enemy gang has +4 members for every Scorpion they have on the battlefield, and +3 for every Falcon/Rook that you see. (Add + 2 for a Blackbird) Do the math and ask yourself "Do I still want to fight them?" If you can handle their 8 man gang but you don't think that you could tangle with 12 of them and still do well... do not engage. ECM will rock your world...

III. They Have A Mixed Gang, BC and BS... What Now??

Battleships hit Battlecruisers like a ton of bricks. So basically, if your in a BC only gang and run into a Mixed BS + BC fleet of similar numbers, you lose. If however you are the ones running the mixed fleet start hitting your primaries

Summary

1.) Fleet command is one of those things that come down to practice. You will not feel comfortable in the FC chair until you have called targets in at least 50 engagements. Don't panic however, because most of those can be on the SISI test server

2.) Remember that a "Fleet Commander" is NOT risking other peoples ships and ISK, he is instead guaranteeing a fun and active corporation for the rest of his/her Teammates. We are only collecting people whom are willing to make mistakes. The only thing you will receive from them is gratitude for leading them into battle and showing them a good time, be it win or lose.

3.) The De-aggression command is THE MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember. If you can recognize when your side has lost before you actually do lose (and half your fleet is flying away in their pod) you are A+ in my book. Use your intuition. In every fight there is a point where you either win or lose, so when your numbers are dropping and the enemy numbers are not... GTFO ASAP

4.) This may seem silly, but truly awesome fleet commanders are EXTREMELY rare in EVE Online. Think of how many fail fitted PVP ships you have seen on killboards? FC's are kind of like a Drake pilot fitting Nanofibers for Speed, a 1600 Plate and nothing but tackle in its midslots Don't take this the wrong way, but the BAR IS SET VERY LOW when it comes to FC ability in EVE Online. If you get decent at what you have read in this thread, you are already a step above the rest and people will be glad to fly with you.

1. Download Sisi launcher and save it at a location of your choice2. Start the Sisi launcher (allow the tool to make changes to your computer, when asked)3. Specify the path to the Singularity client (can be an existing one or a new folder)4. Check the "Start log server" box, if you want to run logserver (from the client folder)5. Click the "Click to play EVE on Singularity" button6. If there is no client in the location you will be asked for the path to your TQ client7. Wait while the client copies, verifies and patches (can take some time)8. Login to Singularity

If you fail at this try the manual installation described below.

Manual Sisi Client Installation

Windows As Singularity is most of the time running a different code version than Tranquility, you will need to create a separate EVE folder to connect to Singularity.